More Tried and True Recipes!

Gluten free baking can be a nail biting experience. Allow me to take the risks for you.

I have thrown so many batches of gluten free bread, gluten free pancakes, gluten free biscuits and gluten free pies straight in the trash over the course of the last six years in my search for recipes that actually taste good. At the time, I would have been content for them to just not taste bad. Beggars can’t be choosers, ya know? Now, I’m a lot more exacting in my requirements as I know what’s actually possible in the gluten free baking world.

It actually pains me to think back on all the dollars represented in those ingredients I threw away! Ugh. But if you don’t try, you’ll never know. So, I continue to try. I frequently modify regular recipes with my own gluten free substitutions with varying success. That works the best with cookie recipes for me. But, I have also tried a lot of specifically gluten free baking recipes that have worked beautifully, lately, and I thought I’d share them here with you. Last time I did this, it was way back in November. I think it’s time. Here’s the link to my last recipe dump below!

Bread!

Going gluten free as a consummate bread lover is a sad business. No more baguette. (Well…none that tastes and feels like real baguette, anyway.) No more sandwiches that don’t fall apart in your hands. No more dinner rolls. No more raisin bread. No more crusty bread with that wonderful chewy texture on the inside.

Oh, it has been sad.

So you can imagine my surprise when I went to pick up my normal King Arthur gluten free measure for measure flour at the store and discovered that they are now offering bread flower…with gluten free wheat starch. That really threw my brain for a loop. And at first, I was skeptical. What!? How was this even possible? I got on their website and started reading. By some process which they don’t explain, (granted, the process itself could confer some rather unhealthy effects…time will tell) they have been able to separate the gluten from the starch and the FDA has cleared it as gluten free and safe for celiacs. Now, I don’t put a whole lot of confidence in the FDA’s opinion on much of anything. I do believe it is gluten free as stated. It’s that process I’m dubious about. What chemicals are used to separate the gluten from the starch? If any? Does the process render the starch more difficult to digest?

Many questions.

However, the desire to eat bread that tastes like bread overcame my caution and I bought a bag at a hefty 12.00 a bag! Good grief. I may rue the day, but I did it. Then I made some cinnamon rolls with it over Easter. They were decent, but not stellar. I think I know what I did wrong and would like to try the recipe again sometime. Anyway, the rolls were pretty good and did not give me any symptoms. Yay!

But a little over a week ago, dear reader, I made a loaf of “artisan” crusty bread with this wondrous, possibly cancer-causing flour. (I jest. I hope.) Folks, it was so good! It was crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. It wasn’t dry! It didn’t fall apart in my hand like so many gluten free breads are want to do. Best of all, it tasted like bread…bready, yeasty, nutty…I can’t put it into words. It just tasted like how I remember bread tasting. And, most importantly, I didn’t get any symptoms at all.

Given my reservations about the health effects of this flour and the on my system and the price of the stuff, I won’t be making this bread once a week. But…I just have to have it in my life. At least once in a while. I can say that if you follow the directions properly, you will have a fine-tasting slice of warm, fresh bread by the end of the next day. Yes, it does take two days from start to finish. You have to make a starter. This takes all of ten minutes. Then you let it rise for twelve to twenty-four hours. Then you use that starter to complete the recipe. Anyway, here’s that marvelous recipe below!

Gluten-Free Artisan Bread

Pancakes

This is a gluten free pancake recipe I have probably made fifty times this year, possibly more. It’s practically no-fail. Prior to this recipe, I was making gluten free pancakes which I ate with a mixture of gusto and resentment. They were better than other pancakes I’d tried to make, but nowhere near as good as those wonderful pancakes of old my mom would serve up almost every Saturday morning when I was a kid. This recipe is, I think, as good as gets in the gluten free world. When I serve them to people other than my husband (who gobbles them down faster than I can make them) they never guess they don’t have any wheat in them. Again, I use King Arthur measure for measure flour for these, not the bread flour. I also use sour raw milk that I have on hand in place of the buttermilk, and they rise in the pan like champs! You’re welcome.

Gluten Free Pancakes

Cookies

Since learning about my problem with oxalates, I have set about curbing my chocolate addiction. In the past, almost any dessert I made would be chocolate themed by choice. Chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, brownies, chocolate chip cookies. Sadly, chocolate is just ridiculously high in oxalate. I now only eat nibbles of dark chocolate to control my oxalate dumping. Here’s a link to one of my posts about oxalates if you’re interested.

So, any time I have to bring a dessert to a church function or gathering, I have been trying recipes which do not feature chocolate. The next two recipes, I adapted for my food sensitivities by substituting my King Arthur measure for measure gf flour for regular wheat flour. No other substitutions have been needed! They turned out beautifully. I brought a plate of cookies to a ladies’ fellowship and they were gone in one evening! Only one other person besides me in the room has to be gluten free. The other ladies either didn’t know the cookies were gluten free, or they just looked too tasty and scrumptious pass over. So, I give you, molasses cookies and molasses cookie bars!

Soft and Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

Quick note: If you also can’t do dairy, I successfully switched the butter out for pork lard and the cookies turned out great. They do have a fuller, richer taste with butter, but they were still delicious.

Ginger Molasses Cookie Bars

The neat thing about these bars is that they are already dairy free. Also, bars are nice if you’re short on time. They taste just like the cookies above, but are even softer and chewier!

Muffins!

Here I give you a solid, unglamorous, yet faithful muffin recipe to pair with your morning eggs and bacon. These applesauce muffins are also dairy free! I’ve made these four or five times, and they always turn out nicely. The recipe calls for coconut sugar, but you can use brown sugar in a pinch. And once again, I used my old faithful King Arthur flour vs. Bob’s Red Mill and it was fine.

Healthy Applesauce Muffins

Housekeeping

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